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Tuesday, 29 December 2015

As I have reiterated numerous times, I like Adam Sandler, most people don't like him and I will happily admit he has made some terrible films but Hotel Transylvania is one of my favourites so the sequel had to be watched.

It took me ages to eventually watch Hotel Transylvania, but I was surprised at how much I loved it, so I was really looking forward to the sequel.

Hotel Transylvania 2 follows on from the first one with Mavis (Selena Gomez) and Jonathan (Andy Samberg) married with a half human half vampire baby, however Dracula (Adam Sandler) is worried that his monster side hasn't come through yet. To rectify the situation, Dracula sends Mavis to visit her human in-laws and recruits his monster friends to try to encourage Dennis' evil side to come out.You didn't warn me the first few scenes would make me cry! I'm deep in the middle of a wedding hotel room drama so anything sweet and wedding related sets me off right now. Watching Dracula and Mavis' sweet moments made me do a bit of an ugly cry.

Straight up, this is not as good as the first one. The jokes aren't as good and the story is pretty poor, however when it does pull a funny, it was really funny. I laughed out loud countless times and was thoroughly entertained, no naps in this film!! I left my adult self at the door and spent an hour and a half being a kid again, laughing at fart jokes and trying to work out the which voice belongs to who from various Adam Sandler movies. I was gobsmacked to find Nick Offerman yet again, that man is literally in everything...ever! Also, did we know that he is married to the awesome Megan Mullally, why did I not know this?! I would love to be a fly on the wall in that house!

You also didn't warn me that Nick freaking Offerman was in this! We need to talk. Also I had no idea until now that Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally are married. That's awesome on so many levels!

The animation is fantastic as well, the attention to detail never fails to amaze me in modern animation. Particularly the scenes with big group, such as the birthday party, there are soo many other things happening in the background, I want to watch it again and again to catch them all.

I really enjoyed the story, although this is another case of the sequel not being quite so good. The jokes were okay, but not laugh out loud for me, other than one moment which struck a weird funny bone for me. That moment when both families are having a big meal together, and there's that phantom of the opera styled guy playing the organ. Someone says something a bit controversial and the organ guy just shouts 'AWKWARD' and I don't know why, but it was one of the funniest things I've ever seen!

Don't overthink it and you'll love it!Definitely worth a watch, but I prefer the original!

Sunday, 27 December 2015

When I started these three reviews, I didn’t realise I was
going to give them all the same rating, however this has ended up being a post
to celebrate the mediocre those middle ground films that aren’t rubbish but
aren’t good either.

Having seen Whiplash and the Spectacular Now (and before
suffering Fantastic Four) I was a little bit obsessed with Miles Teller so when
I clocked Two Night Stand, I had to give it a go.I wasn’t disappointed, I wasn’t overwhelmed
but I wasn’t disappointed so that’s a good thing.It was pretty unrealistic, but what else can
we expect from a romcom (before the amazingness that was Man Up!) so that
didn’t bother me.Not sure how memorable
the story was, I remember most of it but the details are already disappearing
(although exactly how long it’s been since I actually saw it is
questionable).I wouldn’t say its
anything special but it’s the kind of film you can happily watch on a Sunday
afternoon curled up on the sofa, so that’ll do for me!

Another weekend, another evening of Netflix surfing.I was baking a cake (which took 8 hours in
total) so I needed something that required no thinking whatsoever.In your dreams was just that, a light
hearted, terribly acted story of a mystical curse on a fountain.If you throw your coin in you will dream
about your true love for 7 days and you can use that to find said person.Here’s the thing, they threw, they dreamt,
they happen to be in the same place at the same time but miss each other,
decide to find each other, miss each other again, then meet up at the
fountain….thats it!No twists not turns
just bog standard low budget rom com.It
wasn’t terrible, it was far from fantastic but it entertained me while I was
baking – I wouldn’t watch it again though.

Another find of Netflix, I like Uma Thurman, I LOVE Meryl
Streep and I like that kid from One Tree Hill so this couldn’t all be bad. It was actually surprisingly entertaining
(although I’m pretty sure I realised half way through that I had in fact seen
it before!) and interesting as it considers the dynamics of age gaps in
relationships, particularly older women with younger men. Streep throws in some great humour as David's (Bryan Greenberg) controlling Jewish mother,
who also happens to be Rafi’s therapist but it just doesn’t quite hit the mark
for me. It’s obviously forgettable as
didn’t remember ever seeing it before (although that may be my age!) and it
rapidly flipped from light hearted rom com to a story of emotional heartbreak
and loss leaving me a little bit perplexed as to whether it was a happy or sad
ending. Not awful but don’t rush out to
see it, catch it on a Sunday afternoon with a cuppa tea!

Wednesday, 23 December 2015

I’ve been getting quite a few movie recommendations from my Grampy recently. He’s a bigger movie fan than I am (perhaps we should get him to guest post) and he’s much harsher with his judgements too! Hi Grampy, if you’re reading! At the Sunday dinner table he told me about a dark themed movie set in a fast food restaurant, and after pondering it for a while, he told me it was called Coercion, and that the little I knew about it, the better.

Fab. That went straight on the must watch list, so I hunted it down the other day. Only my search for Coercion only found me an unreleased terrorist movie coming out next year, and two shorts, one a crime and the other sci-fi. Nothing mentioning a fast food restaurant! A more thorough search led me to find a post titled ‘Compliance (2012), This Year’s Most Controversial Film’. Plus, a mention of fast food! Huzzah! No thanks there Grampy!

So, here’s what I can tell you about Compliance. On a Friday night, the busiest night of the week for this restaurant, the manager gets a call from the police informing her that one of her employees has stolen cash from a customer’s purse, and the manager is required to interrogate and search her in a bid to find the stolen money.

Honestly, that’s all you need to know. There’s no great plot twist here, and it’s based on a true life story anyway, but an IMDB search will tell you more than I have, so take caution. All I would warn you is this. This film is dark. It’s not a comfortable watch at all, but from a psychological point of view, it’s really quite amazing what lengths people will go to when being told to comply by an authoritative figure.

As it’s such a low budget movie, there are no Hollywood faces here, in fact every face was new to me other than Becky’s (Dreama Walker, who I know from Gossip Girl), but I thought the cast did a fantastic job with such difficult material. I’ve never seen a movie quite like it before, and even now I still can’t believe that everything really happened out here in the real world. (Edit: Scrap that, I've just read through the rest of the cast's Filmography, I take it all back!)

Monday, 21 December 2015

I’ve been in hiding for nearly a week now, avoiding Star Wars spoilers, but last night I finally got to experience The Force Awakens. I use the word experience because that’s truly what it was! I won’t discuss any major plot points here, but if you haven’t seen the movie yet I strongly recommend you don’t read my post (or anyone else's!) before you have, because it’s so much better walking in blind.

Have you ever tried staying away from the internet, your blog, and all social media for 5 days? It’s awful to admit, but it was so difficult! By last night though, I had to remind myself to actually bring my phone with me. It was kind of redundant at that point!

If you read my post last week, you'll know that around this time last month I started watching the Star Wars series for the first time. I’ve always been that person who grunts ‘ugh’ whenever the subject is brought up, and when my family decided that The Force Awakens had to be our Christmas movie this year, I reluctantly decided I should probably watch the movies so I at least had an idea of what was going on. What I didn’t expect was to be so sucked in by it all, or to be stood in the cinema lobby literally shaking with excitement!

Speaking of the cinema lobby...I want to publicly thank the Cineworld in Broad Street for their incredible hospitality. 4 days after the opening night I wasn’t expecting anything, but as we came up the escalator to the IMAX lobby, we were met with staff handing out posters, and 2 stormtroopers on guard duty of every door, posing for everyone and taking photos. It was incredible, and I felt like a kid again. Here are some of our photos!

Life doesn't get much better than getting a selfie with a stormtrooper...I'm just ashamed that I was so giddily happy I just grinned like an idiot!

So, let’s not talk plot, but all the things I loved about The Force Awakens. Firstly, after far too many adverts and trailers, that screen with ‘A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away’ following by the deafening ‘Baa, badaba, ba...etc etc’ got the whole audience giddy with excitement. Everyone in that room was either being elbowed by their companion, or they were the ones lashing out with their elbows. I was one of the victims. Ouch.

Stormtroopers! Sadly, the First Order didn’t have a budget to provide them with better armour, or provide them with target practice, but they have never been cooler, and one in particular was amazing in hand to hand combat! The stormtroopers are my absolute favourites in the entire series (I tend to favour the underdogs) so I was so excited to see them again.

BB8 is the cutest little droid I’ve ever seen. I want one! Everyone should have their own little BB8. It’s quite amazing how much of a personality he has, expressed solely through beeps and the movement of his head. It was almost like a Baymax moment when he gave Finn the thumbs up!

Force powers. I felt a little worried for the smaller children when Kylo Ren used the force as a torture device, I think a 12 year old me would have a few nightmares after that. Nonetheless, my favourite moment of the whole movie might just be Rey attempting a ‘These aren’t the droids you’re looking for’ moment. It was brilliant!

Ugh, honestly I could carry on gushing, but you’ve seen it for yourself, so you know what I’m going to say. My only gripe was the fact that I left the cinema with more questions than I went in with, but all that’s really done is made me more hyped for the next movie! I’ve got over a year now of debating with anyone who will listen who Rey’s parents are.

I really don't even want to score this movie right now! I hate giving out 10s, I like to think that there's always room for improvement...but my judgement is so clouded right now. Consider this a placeholder score!

Saturday, 19 December 2015

Did you know every movie on IMDB has a Parent’s Guide? It’s a useful tool for parents to decide for themselves if a particular movie is suitable for their child(ren), and I use it a lot to help my Mum and 13 year-old brother. It’s also handy for me to find out if I’m going to be able to sit through any kind of horror movie.

There are categories for sex & nudity, violence & gore, profanity,alcohol/drugs/smoking and frightening/intense scenes, and users are able to fill these categories with scenes of note.

Well, as handy as the Parent’s Guide is, it defines movie moments in such clinical terms, that it’s actually hilarious, and I thought it would be fun to share some of these priceless finds with you all. No spoilers ahead, not to worry!

A vampire closes his coffin, and the lid then moves up and down, suggesting masturbation. (What We Do in the Shadows)

A very small amount of language including a few uses of the 'd' word and 'a' word, as well as 1 use of balls (seen in trailer). A man tells another man to "take it like a p***y" (The Man from U.N.C.L.E.)

A boy is struck by lightning, but is otherwise fine besides being a bit frazzled (Moonrise Kingdom)

A song consisting of comic violence (Descendants)

Mark is sometimes without his shirt. Nothing sexual (The Martian)

A man directs a woman to look at a man wagging his penis (Hot Tub Time Machine 2)

A woman tells another woman she is going to "climb" a man, implying sex (Bridesmaids)

A dubious character tries to sell "death sticks" (the nature of which is not specified at all) to a man, before having a guided change of heart (Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones)

Mike stabs a guy in the neck with a spoon (American Ultra)

The Sith Lord gives off a peculiar, demonic growl as he performs his triple corkscrew jump toward the Jedi Knights who confront him. The mixed-pitch sound is like a combination of the sounds made by leopards and eagles, and might frighten children. (Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith)

Thursday, 17 December 2015

I’ve always wondered how long I could put off watching the Star Wars movies before either society shunned me, or I got too curious for my own good. The upcoming release of Episode VII: The Force Awakens is what did it in the end. It’s my family’s movie of choice for our Christmas IMAX outing, and well, I don’t want to be sat watching a movie not knowing what on earth is going on! So, I’ve been compiling this post over the course of 5 weeks, whilst I catch up.

Slight white lie I should fess up to first, I’ve already seen Episode I, but general consensus seems to be that the world would be a much better place without it, so I’m hoping to be forgiven for that.

I will get to see Episode VII on Sunday 20th December, so starting on 15th November, and on every Sunday afterwards, my fiance and I have got together to watch the next installment. We’re watching this in episode order rather than release date, for my own benefit. I get confused easily.

Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999)

It would be wrong to miss this one out really, wouldn’t it? For some reason I got my friends together to watch Episode I at the cinema for my 12th Birthday. I don’t remember much other than the pod racers, and I was a big fan of Jar Jar Binks at that age, too. In fact, I did a fairly good impression of him too, in my own opinion, but it probably sounded exactly like my Yoshi impression…

Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002)

Impression #1: 2 hours and 22 minutes long?! Sigh...get the kettle on. No, I jest. I quite enjoyed watching Attack of the Clones actually. Anakin is an extremely whiny Padawan though, I much preferred him as a cute little kid. The crazy action scenes were fun to watch too, and the CGI wasn’t bad at all. I also had no idea Samuel L Jackson was in this series either, so that was good. Without a doubt Jango Fett was my favourite character, which obviously sealed his fate (curse my luck) but I’m looking forward to seeing Bobba again!

I’m just not sure I understood the whole clone situation though. With a title of ‘Attack of the Clones’ I was expecting Jedi HQ (or whatever it’s called) to be attacked by clones...but no. Who ordered those clones, anyway? My fiance explained it to me but I forgot already. There’s a reason I haven’t watched Star Wars before now. Wait, do they mean the droid army? They attacked? No, I’m not going to try and work it out...

Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005)Okay, I think I’m really getting into this now. Episode III was much better than the other two, although some of the dialogue just made me cringe. It was a sad ending indeed, but at least I don’t have to suffer Anakin and Padme’s relationship any longer. I have to say though, I feel really conflicted about Anakin turning over to the dark side. On one hand, it’s awful and slaying the younglings is absolutely unforgivable. On the other though, he was pretty much forced into it by both sides. The Jedi Council treated him awfully!I have just 2 things to whinge about with this one. Firstly, why on earth does no-one wear any proper kind of protection on their wrists? I lost count of how many hands were lost due to lightsabers this time round. Secondly, surely this movie should have been called Attack of the Clones?! This time they did actually attack!

Episode IV: A New Hope (1977)Oh lordy, why did I save these ones till last? Okay, I understand why I was told to watch in release order now. It is so hard going from modern day special effects to this. Although, and I know this sounds weird, I’m really surprised at how modern the Stormtroopers look. I mean, they look exactly the same from 1977 - 2005 without looking odd over time. It’s a terrible way of wording it I know, but that’s what I’m thinking right now.Anyway, loved the story in this one! There were also so many quotes I’ve always known but without context, and so being able to visualise the ‘these aren’t the droids you’re looking for’ moment gives me great joy. Watching Luke pander after Leia was a little cringey, and I’m hoping they found out that they’re siblings before that gets too weird. I never thought I’d say it, but I am really enjoying Star Wars right now.

Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)Okay, Star Wars fever has hit me full blast. I have stormtrooper pajamas with matching fluffy socks, I'm playing a Star Wars game on my tablet religiously every day, and I've even nabbed joint custody of my fiance's Star Wars Lego advent calendar. Oops.The Empire Strikes Back was probably the movie I was looking forward to the most, everyone I spoke to said it's their favourite. Maybe I was expecting too much, and I really did enjoy it, but I preferred A New Hope! Han Solo was hands down amazing in this though. He just oozes charm! I've never been a big Harrison Ford fan, but he converted me. That moment when Leia tells him she loves him, and he just responds with 'I know' was brilliant. The battle on Hoth was a highlight for sure too, but that was ruined a little from watching the new Battlefront game too much. Dem graphics, man!Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (1983)So...unfortunately life got in the way. My viewing schedule got mixed up, and although I'll be watching Return of the Jedi on Friday night, I wanted to get this posted before the internet breaks with The Force Awakens reviews.I'll add to this as soon as I have seen it but for now...this has been one of the most exciting blogging features I've done. I've gone from reluctantly booking my family's IMAX tickets to being more excited than a child at Christmas!Thanks for stopping by...but for now I'm logging off the blog, Facebook, Twitter, the Internet, Radio and TV until Sunday night, when I finally get to witness the Awakening.May the force be with us all...

Tuesday, 15 December 2015

Chilling out on the sofa with my cousin and we both have
pretty hefty hangovers so we didn’t want anything too heavy so had a rifle
through Netflix and found a good old Hugh Grant film, generally I have liked
most of Hugh Grant’s rom coms in the past so it seemed like a good choice.

I remember seeing the trailer for this last year now! All I can recall is the line 'Ryan?! Reynolds or Gosling?!'

Keith Michaels (Hugh Grant) is a failing Hollywood writer who has to
take a job at a University in Binghamton in order to pay his bills having only really
written one memorable script, Paradise Misplaced. He
refuses to help the students as he believes that writing can’t be taught, he
lies and tells them he is researching for his next script, sleeps with a student
and gets on the wrong side of the wrong teacher, Mary Weldon (Alison Janey).

As soon as I saw Alison Janey and JK Simmons in the opening
credits I was so excited, it couldn’t be bad with these two legends in it. Let me put this bluntly, The Rewrite needed a
rewrite, in fact it should have just been scrapped all together. The lead characters were unlikeable and
mostly irritating, the story was utterly predictable and lacked any comedy
value whatsoever and two of my favourite actors (Alison Janey and JK Simmons)
were completely wasted.

Admittedly, I nearly turned the movie off after about 20 minutes. I had to wonder, were we meant to hate Hugh Grant's character so much? He plays arrogance very well and I appreciate that, but this time it just seemed a bit too much. I hate not finishing a movie though, so I vowed to stick with it.

I watched it until the end just to see if there was some mad
twist that I wasn’t expecting (there wasn’t) but countless times I just wanted
to turn it off and give up (the biggest issue with this was that it was on
Netflix not the TV so I would have had to drag myself off the sofa to the
computer to change it and with the hangover, that just wasn’t happening!). I’ve since read some positive reviews for it
and in reading them I wished I felt the same (because I love a Hugh Grant movie)
but it just didn’t keep me entertained or make me laugh, at all. As I mentioned, I didn’t like the main
characters and I also didn’t think they had any chemistry, they could have just
as easily finished it with them being just friends and I don’t think it would
have affected my opinion in the slightest.

It took a while but I did enjoy The Rewrite in the end! It's certainly not the best rom com out there and I can't be sure how memorable it'll be either, but it made a nice Sunday evening chill out movie. Oh, I do miss Hugh Grant you know. This kind of makes me want to re-watch Bridget Jones' Diary...

I really wished I liked this but I just didn’t, maybe Mr
Grant needs to spread his wings and try out something other than your typical
romcom?

Sunday, 13 December 2015

How have I not written a review for this yet, I actually
thought I had included my thoughts on Allie’s review but it seems not. Being 30 sucks, my memory is shot!! I feel bad repeated a post that we have just done but I couldn't not review this. However, I am finally putting together my
thoughts on this, at the moment they feel like they are going to be a mass mess
of mushy feels….

Pixars’s latest offering follows characters that are effectively
emotions in peoples head Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Disgust (Mindy Kaling), Fear (Bill Hader) and Anger (Lewis Black). It’s mainly focused on Riley (Kaitlyn Dias) and the way
she copes with moving house, a new school and growing up and how the emotions
in her head are effected. The changes
lead Joy and Sadness on an adventure through Riley’s subconscious to get back to
‘HQ’ to stop her from running away from home.

Pixar tried something new and managed to absolutely knock it out
of the park. One of the key things my
Dad has always said he loved about Disney/Pixar movies is that they don’t dumb
down emotions for children. In watching
a Pixar and even some of the latest Dreamworks movies, the lead characters are
actually dealing with real emotions. This
is something I know I said in my Toy Story 3 review and this film has just
reiterated it so well. The film is based
on the emotions that Pixar isn’t afraid to shy away from. There are some really clever ideas in the
film that may be a little advanced for the younger audience but great for the
parents and big kids like myself. The
idea that the short term memories are sent to ‘long term storage’ when Riley goes
to sleep is in keeping with the theory that that is exactly what our brains do
when we sleep.

I thought there was a lot of feels in Toy Story 3 that made
me well up and hide my face from my nieces and nephews every time I watched it
but this was a whole new level. I cried
like a baby, it was genuinely heart-breaking and moving and you could easily
forget you were watching an animation, I was just so caught up in it all.

Finally, I can’t post this review without mentioning the
attention to detail. The full scenes
being played out within the memory balls (some of which I have since found out
were Easter Eggs) plus how much of the way the brain works has been considered
and accounted for inside Riley’s brain!
It’s far too complicated for any small child to understand but the
bright colours and engaging characters will certainly keep them entertained,
while the adults can ponder the deep and meaningfuls that continuously crop up
(is it ok to be sad sometimes?).

Great for kids, even better for adults. Is anyone else a little bit concerned now about The Good Dinosaur between trying to follow this and the two How to Train your Dragon's we've already had, is it dead before it's even out?!

Friday, 11 December 2015

It’s so hard to pick a favourite Parks and Recreation character. In fact, if you asked me, my answer would change every day. It changes with every episode! Over the past 3 months I have whizzed right through all 7 seasons, and loved every episode. I don't think I've ever watched a TV Show that has had so much positive energy!

So whilst this post may feature the most manliest man ever known, Ron Swanson, it’s likely I’ll end up having a post like this for every character eventually.

Meat: The way to Ron Swanson's heart

Ron Swanson does what he wants.

Ron Swanson knows how important breakfast is. So important in fact, breakfast food should be eaten all the time.

Those rare moments when Ron Swanson not only laughs, but giggles.

When Ron Swanson went disguised to the bowling alley to try Tom's least manliest tactic, rolling like a girl.

When Ron Swanson pointed out that salad is not human food.

When Ron Swanson knew how to distance people. Missing from this picture: April doing the same thing back to him.

Ron Swanson drunk. Nuff said.

And finally, the moment that Ron Swanson, AKA Duke Silver, joined Mouse Rat on stage at the Unity Concert. My eyes started to cry, and my brain couldn't explain why.

Wednesday, 9 December 2015

Despite my ridiculously long list of Christmas movies that I simply must watch every year, I’m always on the hunt for new ones I may have missed. So you can imagine my surprise whilst flicking through Netflix that I find a very recent movie starring Anna Kendrick that I’ve never seen! Erm, how is this possible, and would anyone like to buy the rock I’ve been living under?

Happy Christmas (2014) isn’t your typical festive family movie. Jenny (Anna Kendrick) has recently split up with her boyfriend, and moves in with her older brother Kevin (Joe Swanberg), his wife Kelly (Melanie Lynskey) and their young baby. Jenny makes a bad first impression straight away when she goes out and gets horrendously drunk, when she had promised Kelly she would babysit the following morning.

Around 20 minutes in, I had a feeling of deja vu, and a quick IMDB search showed me that this is directed by Joe Swanberg, who also directed Drinking Buddies (2013). If you haven’t seen either of these movies, Joe Swanberg basically gets his cast together, tells them a vague outline of the plot and leaves them to improvise the rest, there is no script.

General consensus says that Drinking Buddies is the superior movie, but I actually preferred Happy Christmas. Perhaps it’s because this time I knew what to expect, I’ll have to re-watch Drinking Buddies to be sure. Swanberg’s movies are definitely like nothing else I’ve ever seen. There’s an almost awkward vibe going on, but at the same time, the conversations these characters have are so much more real, because well, they are real! I think I slightly preferred Drinking Buddies but I half wished Anna Kendrick was in that because I just love her, she is just too awesome! Personally, I think both are ok but could just do with a little bit more story, if I didn't know it was improvised I would have been bored stupid, I tend to keep watching because I'm trying to work out what story they have been told to follow and what is completely pulled out of their heads. I wish I could see a copy of the story they were given! I think that's why I didn't enjoy Drinking Buddies, I had no idea until afterwards that it was all improvised, so I was so confused!

This is the part where I normally gush about how much I love Anna Kendrick is and how she stole the show here, and don’t get me wrong, she was amazing in this, but it was honestly the baby who stole every scene he was in. He was just so darn funny! I couldn’t even pick a single example for you, but he’s the most happiest and lively little boy I’ve ever seen in a movie. Fully agree, he was so cute! I wonder if he is related to any of the cast (particularly Joe Swanberg) because he was just so comfortable with them. If he isn't, he's going to be a star one day!

Happy Christmas has some great characters who you really sympathise with, and when everything heats up during the night before Christmas itself, it’s hard to pick sides. I just wish the movie didn’t end so abruptly! I’d have loved just another 20 minutes or so to tie things up a little.

For me it felt like none of the conversations that happened in the film were tied up, I feel like there was more questions posed than answered (or the Lost effect as I have chosen to call it!) Did Jenny stay with Jeff (Mark Webber)? Did the family reconnect? What movie was she watching in the cinema? Why did they call the film Happy Christmas when other than the tree it wasn't remotely Christmassy?!

I guess my only other grumble is that this was in no way the full-of-festivity movie I was expecting, especially from a movie called Happy Christmas, but then I went into this blind so that’s my own fault for having preconceptions!